Socialist Party members
Just under a year since the election of the Starmer government and delegates at the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) conference were still waiting to see change.
The conference opened to striking Birmingham bin worker Mike Masters talking about their experience of fighting the Labour council’s union busting tactics over the last five months. Rather than bin workers suffering £8,000 annual pay cuts, he said: “Let the fat cats pay with the pay rise they gave themselves.” He pointed out that “All this is happening under the eyes of Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and the Labour Party” .
Following this, union president Ian Hodson used his speech to lay into the Labour government for their austerity policies, leaving the door open for the likes of Reform by stoking division among the working class. He said: “We must start to organise a political party and a party of our own”.
At the fringe meeting organised by the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), delegates were unanimous in their agreement that a new mass workers’ party had to be built by the working class and trade unions. They said Labour takes trade unionists’ money and then forces them onto the picket line! Some delegates raised about coordinating rule-change motions to trade unions.
The attendance at the fringe meeting was higher than in previous years. Former victimised Tesco warehouse Usdaw rep, Max McGee, explained what the NSSN stood for, and that the upcoming conference is an opportunity for trade unionists to come together to discuss building the fight against Starmer’s attacks. He reminded delegates that the NSSN had fought along with the BFAWU for £10-an-hour minimum wage and then £15, both of which ended up being adopted as TUC policy. The NSSN also builds solidarity with workers in dispute such as the Birmingham bin workers.
